I wan't a Broadie!!!!. I won't get mine till september and I had to wear a girdle in induction week which was quite fun since it is a lot more confortable, despite the rude messages written all across it in permanent marker!.
They look really snazzy and I defo should have read this thread befre I left because I too was really confused seeing the amount of people with more than one buckle on their broadie. V. confusing.

Picking up on this old thread, I still have my old broadie buckle and have recently acquired the Samuel Travers buckle pictured in my avatar. It must be a very rare find indeed. This Travers maths prize buckle was presented to Wm R. B. Briscoe in 1868 who gets a mention in Ken Mansell's book as a famous pupil and school Governor.

Anyway, I was thinking that it would be nice to display on a girdle/belt and I seem to have lost mine, so does anybody know where I could acquire one? Do we think the school might sell me one?

michael scuffil wrote:Almost any street market or craft shop would sell leather belts of the right size and colour. You'd just have to cut the existing buckle off and trim the end.

I thought about that, but my memory of the girdle is that it is very different to what is generally available. I don't recall any of the embossing that postwarblue talks about either, so perhaps they have changed quite significantly.

The girdle that I wore 35 years ago is exactly the same as those currently worn. There is a rather excellent recent photograph included of the girdle and buckles in this link.

One difference in those (excellent) pics is that for the old Broadie there was no loose end to tuck over. The buckle went on the pointed end and the boy then cut the belt to length and cut a T-shaped hole in the cut end to take the dog of the buckle.

No girdle that I ever wore (6 broadies and two others) was ever embossed. Just a plain length of leather in the broadie case, tapered to a point at one end. You pricked two holes for the spines of the buckle near that end, and a small slit at the other end to put the thingummy on the buckle through. This latter operation usually had to be repeated once or twice as the girdle stretched. (Girdles were replaced annually, so you had to re-fit the buckle.)

I was given the nickname BEANY in Peele A dormitory in 1941.I was nearest the door as we started giving out names.
Matron came in and it never went any further
It has an association with my surname and a well known bean tinned food !!!!
Oh Yes I still have my buckle
My Father's was stolen when his home was burgled years ago
He was also in Peele A.
I think C F Kirby a Master whilst I was at school started in Peele A just as my Dad was leaving 1917,
he had started in 1912.
I'll have to check that.